Post by Lord Hastings on Feb 17, 2024 14:28:11 GMT -5
The closing segment of Synergy saw Alan Wallace and Donovan Hastings sign their contract for their World Heavyweight Championship match at Infinity. With both barred from making contact with the other, the signing looked for a moment as though it would pass without incident, until Donovan grabbed Simon and put him through the table, an action that Vain was unable to take action to prevent or retaliate against.
Donovan enters his locker room after Synergy has gone off the air, a smug look upon his face.
Voice: I imagine you think yourself rather clever.
Donovan turns to face the recently minted Creative Director, his sometimes ally and sometimes enemy, Phrixus Deimos.
Hastings: For knowing you’d be here when I got back? I think you’re actually becoming sadly predictable.
Deimos: For the actions you just took in the ring.
Hastings: Oh, come now. You tied our hands and then sent us out there for a contract signing to close out the go-home show for Infinity. I had to come up with a creative solution for the hard sell. From where I’m standing, I did you a favor. I think the words you’re searching for are “thank you.”
Deimos: Those may be the words, but perhaps you should reconsider which of us should be saying them.
Hastings: Excuse me?
Deimos: Tell me, Donovan, just how is it that you believe you came to be in this match?
Hastings: You must be joking.
Deimos: It has been suggested that I am incapable of such an action, in which case, perhaps you will entertain me.
Hastings: I’m in this match because I went out of the first Synergy of the year and challenged Vain to the biggest dream match-up for the World Heavyweight Championship that UGWC has left.
Deimos: No, you are in this match because you were the best option that UGWC had left.
Hastings: What are you talking about?
Deimos: We are headed into Infinity. The Global Challenge in the center stage. Our most promising contenders are occupied with the tournament. Lucy Wylde and Sebastian Everett-Bryce have turned their attention to the cooperative division. You are simply…what remains.
Hastings: Don’t you come at me with this garbage. You spent months last year jockeying and pushing for me to get back to the World Title, all in the name of resurrecting the lost legacy of UGWC. You mean to tell me that now that you’re the Creative Director, you’re going to pretend you don’t want that anymore?
Deimos: I am not attempting to feign anything at all. My concern is and always has been preserving the legacy and core identity of UGWC. A few months ago the best way of doing so appeared to be restoring you to your flagship status, however now that I am the Creative Director, I can preserve our identity while shepherding UGWC into the future, and that future will be built upon the backs of the likes of Matt Knox and Larry Tact. Your services are no longer essential.
Hastings: And how essential will I be when I beat Vain at Infinity and I’m your marquee champion again?
A knowing smile flashes on the face of the Embodiment of Fear.
Deimos: You made a good point earlier, about this being a match that so many people have wanted to see. Alan Wallace against Donovan Hastings for the UGWC World Heavyweight Title. Our fans would surely be disappointed if it never took place. How fortunate that we had this opportunity to get it out of the way.
Donovan clenches his teeth.
Hastings: Out of the way…
Deimos: And should you prove victorious? What an incredible moment that will be. Just think of how incredible a moment it will also be when you go on to lose the title to Ezra Wolf. A historic passing of the torch, perhaps it is…inevitable.
Donovan lunges forward, pinning Phrixus against the wall with his forearm. The Creative Director does not resist.
Hastings: I could do it, you know. End your games, put a stop to it all. Finish things between us permanently.
Phrixus grins, the sight of which chills Donovan to the point of involuntarily relaxing his grip.
Deimos: Dear Donovan, that is what you fail to understand.
Phrixus steps out of Donovan’s grasp and walks towards the door.
Deimos: It is already over.
We’ve waited a long time for this, Alan.
Fifteen times I’ve won matches with the World Heavyweight Title on the line. None of them were against you.
Twelve times you’ve won matches with the World Heavyweight Title on the line. None of them were against me.
As of Infinity, you will have held the World Heavyweight Title for a combined 532 days, the most of anyone in history after passing the previous leader this past week. That leader, of course, was me. It’s a record that will be mine again in another week, but that is besides the point.
The point is that we are about to have what is likely to be the greatest match in UGWC history, between the two greatest champions in UGWC history. I wonder if the gravity of that isn’t lost on you, given your time away. Obviously we’ve both already been in our fair share of historic main events, such as when I headlined Horizons with other former World Champions such as Jet Somers and Sloane Taylor, or when you headlined Horizons with Travis Roberts or the year you did it with Kem Dynamo that people try not to talk about.
We’ve both compiled epic and historic runs as World Champion. Duing my reign in 2014 I ran off wins against four future Hall of Famers. During yours in 2015 you beat up the Mainstreamer a lot. Like, a lot. In 2021 I formalized the List of Hastings and took down no less than five former World Champions of the modern era. During your reign in 2018 you headlined Horizons with Kem Dynamo, we need to make sure people don’t forget about that gem. Put it all together, and we are two historic champions of equal measure.
Or are we?
The truth of the matter is that your accomplishments simply don’t measure up to mine, Alan. I’m a greater champion than you, a greater Entertainment Professional than you, I always have been. I never had to go slink off and be depressed because some wind knocked over my favorite chair. My throne has remained strong throughout our history, my presence and influence consistent, my legacy stood firm above all others.
You’ve made an entire career out of an aura and a reputation. You arrived to fanfare and fawning, and we were meant to worship you for no reason other than because we were supposed to. There were statues of bronze and rhodium amidst monikers aplenty, all to distract us from the reality that you were what a person gets when they order Travis Roberts off Wish.
Of course, you grew beyond those shallow beginnings, became a truly legendary figure on your own merits. In addition to championships and accomplishments, you’ve also accrued an even longer list of additional and increasingly ridiculous monikers. The Personification of Perfection. The Prognosticator of the Bro Hug. The Once and Future Blessed One Yahtzee Invitational King. The Unquestionable Quester of Quivering Quim. I’ve been known by one moniker my entire career, the only one I’ve ever needed.
The Lord of Pain.
Typically it refers to the pain and suffering I inflict upon my opponents, but it has a bit of a dual meeting when it comes to you. For a decade now, I’ve been forced to suffer the pain of people believing that you’re somehow better than the rest of us. I’ve been forced to endure the misbegotten belief that you’ve been our most influential World Champion, that you were the Entertainment Professional of the Decade with the most captivating rivalries and accomplishments, when all of that was really me.
I’m glad you came back, Alan, I really am. I’m even glad you won the Massive Melee and became the Keymaster and won back the World Title in the main event of Horizons, because we needed it to come to this moment. I’ve always known I’m going to win the World Title again, but this match simply wouldn’t hit for me the same way if it was me defending against you trying to prove you’re still relevant. Now everyone knows that you’re at your best. They’re also about to see the proof that I’m still better.
I always have been.
Donovan enters his locker room after Synergy has gone off the air, a smug look upon his face.
Voice: I imagine you think yourself rather clever.
Donovan turns to face the recently minted Creative Director, his sometimes ally and sometimes enemy, Phrixus Deimos.
Hastings: For knowing you’d be here when I got back? I think you’re actually becoming sadly predictable.
Deimos: For the actions you just took in the ring.
Hastings: Oh, come now. You tied our hands and then sent us out there for a contract signing to close out the go-home show for Infinity. I had to come up with a creative solution for the hard sell. From where I’m standing, I did you a favor. I think the words you’re searching for are “thank you.”
Deimos: Those may be the words, but perhaps you should reconsider which of us should be saying them.
Hastings: Excuse me?
Deimos: Tell me, Donovan, just how is it that you believe you came to be in this match?
Hastings: You must be joking.
Deimos: It has been suggested that I am incapable of such an action, in which case, perhaps you will entertain me.
Hastings: I’m in this match because I went out of the first Synergy of the year and challenged Vain to the biggest dream match-up for the World Heavyweight Championship that UGWC has left.
Deimos: No, you are in this match because you were the best option that UGWC had left.
Hastings: What are you talking about?
Deimos: We are headed into Infinity. The Global Challenge in the center stage. Our most promising contenders are occupied with the tournament. Lucy Wylde and Sebastian Everett-Bryce have turned their attention to the cooperative division. You are simply…what remains.
Hastings: Don’t you come at me with this garbage. You spent months last year jockeying and pushing for me to get back to the World Title, all in the name of resurrecting the lost legacy of UGWC. You mean to tell me that now that you’re the Creative Director, you’re going to pretend you don’t want that anymore?
Deimos: I am not attempting to feign anything at all. My concern is and always has been preserving the legacy and core identity of UGWC. A few months ago the best way of doing so appeared to be restoring you to your flagship status, however now that I am the Creative Director, I can preserve our identity while shepherding UGWC into the future, and that future will be built upon the backs of the likes of Matt Knox and Larry Tact. Your services are no longer essential.
Hastings: And how essential will I be when I beat Vain at Infinity and I’m your marquee champion again?
A knowing smile flashes on the face of the Embodiment of Fear.
Deimos: You made a good point earlier, about this being a match that so many people have wanted to see. Alan Wallace against Donovan Hastings for the UGWC World Heavyweight Title. Our fans would surely be disappointed if it never took place. How fortunate that we had this opportunity to get it out of the way.
Donovan clenches his teeth.
Hastings: Out of the way…
Deimos: And should you prove victorious? What an incredible moment that will be. Just think of how incredible a moment it will also be when you go on to lose the title to Ezra Wolf. A historic passing of the torch, perhaps it is…inevitable.
Donovan lunges forward, pinning Phrixus against the wall with his forearm. The Creative Director does not resist.
Hastings: I could do it, you know. End your games, put a stop to it all. Finish things between us permanently.
Phrixus grins, the sight of which chills Donovan to the point of involuntarily relaxing his grip.
Deimos: Dear Donovan, that is what you fail to understand.
Phrixus steps out of Donovan’s grasp and walks towards the door.
Deimos: It is already over.
~
We’ve waited a long time for this, Alan.
Fifteen times I’ve won matches with the World Heavyweight Title on the line. None of them were against you.
Twelve times you’ve won matches with the World Heavyweight Title on the line. None of them were against me.
As of Infinity, you will have held the World Heavyweight Title for a combined 532 days, the most of anyone in history after passing the previous leader this past week. That leader, of course, was me. It’s a record that will be mine again in another week, but that is besides the point.
The point is that we are about to have what is likely to be the greatest match in UGWC history, between the two greatest champions in UGWC history. I wonder if the gravity of that isn’t lost on you, given your time away. Obviously we’ve both already been in our fair share of historic main events, such as when I headlined Horizons with other former World Champions such as Jet Somers and Sloane Taylor, or when you headlined Horizons with Travis Roberts or the year you did it with Kem Dynamo that people try not to talk about.
We’ve both compiled epic and historic runs as World Champion. Duing my reign in 2014 I ran off wins against four future Hall of Famers. During yours in 2015 you beat up the Mainstreamer a lot. Like, a lot. In 2021 I formalized the List of Hastings and took down no less than five former World Champions of the modern era. During your reign in 2018 you headlined Horizons with Kem Dynamo, we need to make sure people don’t forget about that gem. Put it all together, and we are two historic champions of equal measure.
Or are we?
The truth of the matter is that your accomplishments simply don’t measure up to mine, Alan. I’m a greater champion than you, a greater Entertainment Professional than you, I always have been. I never had to go slink off and be depressed because some wind knocked over my favorite chair. My throne has remained strong throughout our history, my presence and influence consistent, my legacy stood firm above all others.
You’ve made an entire career out of an aura and a reputation. You arrived to fanfare and fawning, and we were meant to worship you for no reason other than because we were supposed to. There were statues of bronze and rhodium amidst monikers aplenty, all to distract us from the reality that you were what a person gets when they order Travis Roberts off Wish.
Of course, you grew beyond those shallow beginnings, became a truly legendary figure on your own merits. In addition to championships and accomplishments, you’ve also accrued an even longer list of additional and increasingly ridiculous monikers. The Personification of Perfection. The Prognosticator of the Bro Hug. The Once and Future Blessed One Yahtzee Invitational King. The Unquestionable Quester of Quivering Quim. I’ve been known by one moniker my entire career, the only one I’ve ever needed.
The Lord of Pain.
Typically it refers to the pain and suffering I inflict upon my opponents, but it has a bit of a dual meeting when it comes to you. For a decade now, I’ve been forced to suffer the pain of people believing that you’re somehow better than the rest of us. I’ve been forced to endure the misbegotten belief that you’ve been our most influential World Champion, that you were the Entertainment Professional of the Decade with the most captivating rivalries and accomplishments, when all of that was really me.
I’m glad you came back, Alan, I really am. I’m even glad you won the Massive Melee and became the Keymaster and won back the World Title in the main event of Horizons, because we needed it to come to this moment. I’ve always known I’m going to win the World Title again, but this match simply wouldn’t hit for me the same way if it was me defending against you trying to prove you’re still relevant. Now everyone knows that you’re at your best. They’re also about to see the proof that I’m still better.
I always have been.